5 Key Ways to Optimise Your Institution’s Website

Your higher education institution likely has several goals and requirements in mind when building and maintaining your website, from student prospecting and news and events, to academics and advancement. Online giving is on the rise and websites continue to be the leading digital channel by which to give. Therefore, it’s critical that your institution’s website is designed for fundraising success.

Here are the five key areas you should focus on when working with your website team and other stakeholders:

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Search engine optimisation (SEO) can determine how easy it is for your audience to find you online. A good SEO strategy should help drive serious traffic to your website.

Reach Donors with Effective SEO Tactics

Find the right keyword: Ensure your webpage’s content focuses on these keywords; revolves around those keywords your target audience is searching.

On-page optimisation is the key to success: Revolve content around the specific keyword(s) for that page and optimise it so that it focuses on that specific keyword(s); be sure to also include the keyword in the text displayed on the page.

Optimise your images (image size and quality specifically): Large images make for longer page load times, if the speed of your website load time is slow, users are more likely to drop off.

Boost your backlink profile: Link to your specific page from other institutions that are like yours. If a user sees a link from another institution, they will often bring the trust they have for them along to your institution. This also helps your Google ranking.

Track your data: Use a free tool like Google Analytics to help inform your actions and evaluate your page performance.

2. Social Media and Online Communities

Your website is a powerful business tool. Social media is a powerful business tool. If they work together seamlessly, your digital marketing strategy can achieve better results. Integrating social media into your website can increase your online presence and encourage interaction with your brand.

Integrate Social Media into Your Website Strategy

Get on board with live video: It’s very easy to take live video at events these days as the quality of video taken with your iPhone or Android is acceptable. Live video is much more engaging than a static image. It helps drive engagement and inspire action.

Utilize Facebook and Instagram stories: It makes the end-user feel more a part of your community/institution.

Make sure your social profiles are up to date: Be sure your profile is updated and reflects your most current messaging and information.

Formulate a question: Ask yourself what it is you’re trying to track or what needs to change to increase engagement.

Generate a hypothesis: Generate a hypothesis around the questions you’re asking and be sure to write it down because as you test, you’re going to be looking back and questioning why.

Gather data: Continue gathering data for long length of times (2, 4, 6+ weeks) as you want to make sure you have consistent data and so you can determine a reliable outcome.

Analyse data: Don’t simply make changes because you think you should, use the data to inform your changes.

Take action: If the numbers or testing shows a positive experience for an end user, take the action on the website.

5. Personalisation

Website personalisation is the process of creating customised experiences for visitors to a website. Rather than providing a single, broad experience, website personalisation allows companies to present visitors with unique experiences tailored to their needs and desires.